Daily Archives: January 14, 2014

[The Sunni terrorist coalition known as “al-Qaeda,” was all but finished until Saudi/Qatari money saved them, giving them new life as foot-soldiers in Riyadh’s relentless march towards a Sunni “superstate, a.k.a., “global Caliphate.”]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has provided evidence to foreign ambassadors in Baghdad showing that Saudi Arabia was behind the deadly acts of violence perpetrated by al-Qaeda in al-Anbar.

Iraqi MP Ali Al-Shalah of the State of Law Coalition (SLC) said on Monday that the Iraqi government has produced evidence that showed Saudi Arabia and several other countries were behind the recent terrorist attacks in al-Anbar Province, Al-Alam reported.

He said the documents were given to the ambassadors in a Thursday meeting in Baghdad.

Shalah said the government has asked the foreign diplomats to adopt proper stance against al-Qaeda terrorists in the international communities.

“Iraq is attempting to hold a conference for denouncing terrorism, especially as Russia has also recognized Saudi Arabia as being responsible for recent terrorist movements,” he said.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that Iraqi leaders should address the underlying causes of a protracted surge in violence plaguing the country.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for Iraqi leaders to address the “root causes” of a surge in bloodshed as security forces clashed with gunmen in violence-wracked Anbar province.

“I would urge the leaders of the country … to address the root causes of the problems,” Ban said during a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

“They should ensure that there is nobody left behind. There should be political cohesion” and “social cohesion, and political dialogue, inclusive dialogue,” he said.

“The security situation in Iraq is undoubtedly a source of great concern,” the UN chief said, adding that he is “deeply concerned by this escalation of violence in Anbar governorate.”

Ban noted that civilian casualties were at the highest level since 2008, and said that “the government and people of Iraq must unite in addressing this terrorism.”

Ban arrived in Baghdad Monday for talks with senior Iraqi officials on the war in neighboring Syria, as Iraq grapples with its own deadly crisis, AFP reported.

His visit comes ahead of peace conference next week on the Syrian crisis in Switzerland dubbed “Geneva 2” which is aimed at engaging regime and opposition members in their first direct talks.

The violence in Anbar broke out on December 30, 2013, when the army removed an protest camp in Ramadi, believed to be a nest for al-Qaeda elements which the government said were making plans to destabilize the volatile country.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaks during an interview with Reuters in Baghdad January 12, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani

(Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a striking change of course, is embracing the Sunni Muslim tribal fighters whose role in combating al Qaeda he had allowed to wither after U.S. troops left two years ago.

Al Qaeda-linked militants, feeding off widespread Sunni resentment at perceived mistreatment by his Shi’ite-led government, swept into the cities of Falluja and Ramadi two weeks ago in an embarrassing setback to Maliki.

His chances of a third term after a parliamentary election in April hang partly on his ability to project an image as a strong national figure who can impose security and stability.

Maliki has used al Qaeda’s resurgence to muster foreign support for his government, which has otherwise disappointed the United States and allies by moving close to Iran and its failure to forge consensus with the once-dominant Sunni minority.

International engagement was evident on Monday with a visit to Baghdad by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“We are happy that the whole world stood by us in an unprecedented way,” the 63-year-old Maliki, who has been in office since 2006, told Reuters on Sunday.

But as security unravels in Falluja, Ramadi and other parts of Sunni-dominated Anbar province, Maliki appears to have heeded U.S. and other voices urging him to do more to enlist Sunni tribal support against al Qaeda and its allies.

He is turning the money taps back on to try to quench an insurgency by al Qaeda’s latest incarnation in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whose rise has helped drive violence back to the worst level in five years.

The Sahwa (Awakening) militias that joined forces with U.S. troops to combat, if not defeat, al Qaeda in 2006-07 when Sunni-Shi’ite violence was at its peak can once again expect full support and recognition from the state, Maliki says.

“Those people contribute to achieving security and the government has to take care of them,” he said, briskly fielding questions at an ornate, flag-decked reception room in his three-storey palace in Baghdad’s heavily guarded “Green Zone”.

Any tribesmen fighting alongside the Iraqi army against al Qaeda would be considered part of Sahwa.

“They will get regular salaries and will be recognized by the government as security personnel and will get all the benefits of the security forces members,” he said.

NO ASSAULT ON FALLUJA

Maliki said there would be “no limit” to recruiting, arming and equipping Sahwa fighters, whose monthly wages were more than doubled a few months ago to 500,000 dinars ($430).

Money was not a problem, said the prime minister, since all such expenses would be met outside the state budget.

“Because security is the priority in such circumstances, the cabinet last week approved keeping security (costs), including weapons, salaries and other equipment out of the budget.”

Iraqi troops and armed tribesmen regained control of Ramadi, Anbar’s provincial capital last week. The army is surrounding Falluja, but Maliki ruled out any frontal attack on a city which endured two devastating U.S. assaults in 2004.

“We want to end the presence of those militants without any bloodshed because the people of Falluja have suffered a lot,” he said, insisting the people of the city must expel al Qaeda.

“There is a good response from Falluja’s sons and tribes,” he said. “We do not care how long this takes.”

Whether Maliki can or will address the underlying grievances of the Sunni minority, which lost power when Saddam Hussein and his Baath party were toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2003, and give it a real say in Iraq’s affairs remains doubtful. Sunni Arabs account for up to 30 percent of the population.

Relentless bombings aimed at the security forces, Shi’ite civilians, pro-government Sunni fighters and others had complicated reform efforts even before the Falluja crisis.

For now an anti-terrorism law and “de-Baathification” provisions seen by Sunnis as discriminatory seem likely to stay on the statute books at least until the April 30 election.

Meantime, Maliki envisages a military campaign against ISIL in Anbar and beyond, drawing strength from newly supplied U.S. Hellfire missiles, intelligence and satellite imagery, as well as recently delivered Russian attack helicopters.

He said Iraq would eventually require combat fighters and long-range missiles to defend its sovereignty, but the immediate need was for light and heavy infantry weapons to fight al Qaeda.

CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN

“This is not a battle of armies, it’s a guerrilla battle, street fighting,” Maliki said, adding that troops and tribesmen needed anti-aircraft guns to use as infantry weapons against foes amply supplied with arms smuggled from distant Libya.

The Iraqi leader said the Anbar campaign would be followed by a “clean-up” against al Qaeda in Mosul, Salahaddin and Diyala provinces. “We started in Anbar and won’t stop until we finish off the last cell in this sinister organization,” he declared.

ISIL is also on the frontline of the civil war in Syria, where it is battling President Bashar al-Assad’s troops as well as rival rebel groups incensed by its ruthless behavior.

Maliki said internal fighting between ISIL and the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda-linked group in Syria, was weakening both organizations and reducing pressure on Iraq.

He asserted that most weapons used by militants in Iraq were coming from Syria – although fighters and arms move both ways across the porous 605-km (378-mile) border, including some Iraqi Shi’ite militiamen who are fighting on Assad’s side.

Maliki said Iraq was neutral in the Syrian conflict and frowned on any meddling by foreign fighters or outside powers.

“We believe that aligning with any of the parties in the crisis is very risky. We absolutely refuse to be involved in the crisis in any way. No weapons, no supplies and no fighters.”

Maliki, whose government has been accused by Washington of allowing Iranian flights to deliver weapons to Assad’s forces across Iraqi airspace, said only negotiations could end the war.

“We support Geneva 2,” he said, referring to next week’s planned peace talks in Switzerland. But he made clear the conference, tasked with arranging an agreed political transition in Syria, had no right to force the Syrian leader to step down.

“His future will be decided by his people and the ballot box,” said Maliki, who spent years in exile in Syria and Iran as an underground leader of the Shi’ite Islamist Dawa party.

Syria has become a pawn in a fierce regional power struggle between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which was aghast when the U.S. occupation after Saddam’s fall brought about the elections that empowered Iraq’s Shi’ite majority.

A German national died in a US drone strike in Pakistan, a report revealed on Monday. The 27-year-old convert to Islam claimed to have close links with German authorities and even to be in contact with security officials.

The strike occurred on February 16, 2012, some 35 km south of the Pakistani town of Mir Ali, which itself is about 30 kilometers south east of the Afghan border.

However, it is only now that details have begun to emerge. The man in question has been identified as Patrick K., from Hesse, central Germany, according to the German paper, Süddeutsche Zeitung and the NDR broadcaster.

An entry at a jihadist forum, which also produced video evidence of his death, stated the man’s full name was Patrick Klaus. Two separate German-language video messages (Part one; Part two) posted by German Islamists show Klaus smiling at the camera as he calls on his compatriots with the same beliefs to: “Follow me”.

The German national apparently switched to Islam at the age of 14, reports Die Welt. In 2011, he moved to Waziristan, a mountainous region near Afghanistan’s border back in 2011 to live with his wife, who is thought to be a Pakistani national.

The reports state that at the time of the strike Patrick K. had been travelling in a pick-up truck alongside several Uzbek fighters. They were heading in the direction of South Waziristan when a MQ-1 Predator drone missile hit the vehicle. Nine others died alongside Patrick K., and the vehicle itself was left completely burnt out.

“He says that he was in close contact with an official from the BKA [Federal Criminal Police Office] in Hesse, who allegedly recruited him successfully,” claims the SZ paper, a link to which can be found in German.

It is also thought that an official from the domestic intelligence agency – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – had made efforts to communicate with him.

Patrick Klaus

Patrick K. had previously been arrested in Bonn in 2011, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung, in the run-up to the Social Democrat’s German Festival to celebrate 150 years of the party’s existence. Security services were on high alert and feared a possible attack. However, suspicions about him were quickly dispelled and the possibility of an attack was dismissed.

Patrick K. travelled to Pakistan a few days afterwards, according to the paper, and subsequently lost contact with the officials that he had allegedly been in contact with. Whilst in Pakistan, he was in contact with the notorious Chouka brothers – Yassin and Mounir Chouka – two German militants of Moroccan descent, who are part of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, deemed a terrorist organization by the UK, US and Russia.

At the time of the 2012 attack’s occurrence, there had been over 260 US drone strikes in the previous eight years. A week prior to the strike, several senior leaders were also killed in an attack in North Waziristan. The area is known for high militant activity, and the US government deems the strikes a necessary and carefully considered part of the struggle against militant groups in its “War against Terror” operation.

Pakistan has repeatedly condemned US drone strikes in the country, with a high court ruling in May last year that strikes in the tribal belt should be considered war crimes. Demonstrations against strikes have also taken place, with a former cricket star-turned politician, Imran Khan, leading a road block demonstration in November against the practice, of which he is a harsh critic.